Convertible railway-car



Patented June 22, 1920.

II I ww W om W Qi@ w O 0 nvk O u L L UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

. RICHARD E. WALKER, OF ROANOKE, VIRGINIA.

CONVERTIBLE RAILWAY-CAR.

Original application led August 23, 1919, Serial No. 3l9,393. Divided and this Specification of Letters Patent.

Patentedy June 22, 11920.

application led January 24, 1920. Serial No. 353,674.

To all whom t may concern: f

Be it known that I, RICHARD E. WALKER, a citizen of the United States of America, anda resident of Roanoke, county of Roanoke, and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Convertible Railway-Cars, of which the following is a full and clear specification.

The object of this invention is to so construct a railway car that it may be readily converted from a car having a flat, closed bottom into a car having a double, inclined bottom leading to a center dump chute, as

erence-characters, a designates the two permanent floor-sections, one arranged at each end of the car, and two adjustable floorsections each extending from one'of said permanent sections to the transverse center of the car, these sections serving to complete the floor of the car and being flush withthe permanent sections a when the car is adjusted for use as a box-car. The inner ends of adjustable sections b rest on a transverse beam c at the center of the car, and near their outer ends they are each alixed to a rockable shaft Z suitably journaled in the floor-beams of the car and located under the floor-section b and a short distance from its outer end. Each of these sections b may be swung upwardly and outwardly toward the end of the car by rock-shaft d, andwhen thus swung over as far as they will go their outer.. ends rest upon transverse battens e aiiixedi to the end-walls of the car, as shown, in dotted lines in Fig. 1. This rocking of the shaft d is accomplished through the'medium. of a worm-gear f aiiixed to shaft (Z and engaged by a worm g mounted on the application Serial No. 319,393, filed shaft h journaled in' suitable bearings in the side of the oar,y said shaft being squared at 011e end to permit it to be turned by the vapplication of a crank-wrench.

The usual center dump-chute is provided underneath the adjustable sections b, this chute consistingof the two oppositely-inclined bottom sections i and the two central dump-doors j, which latter are adapted to be opened and closed in any suitable manner, desirably by chains r: and transverse shafts Z. The inclined bottom-sections z' do not extend entirely to the inner edges of the permanent sections a, but terminate short thereof, leaving a transverse space m, which space is closed by the outer end of the swinging section b when the same is inverted into the dotted-line position, so that in this inverted position the adjustable section b forms virtually a continuation of the permanent chute section z', so that each inclined wall of the chute extends continuously from the dump-doors j upwardly to the end-wall of the car.

The nature and scope of the invention having been thus indicated and its preferred embodiment having 'been specifically described, what is claimed as new is:

In a convertible car, a iloorfstructure embodying permanent floor-Sections at the ends of the car, two invertible floor-sections completing the floor of the car, each of these sections being mounted and supported upon a rock-shaft connected to the section at a distance from its outer edge, vmeans for inverting these sections to swing their inner edges upwardly and outwardly to meet the end-walls of the car to thus convert them into downwardlyinclined chute-sections, a

RICHARD E. WALKER. 

